2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperatio

BEIJING: China and Africa have been more closely bonded in their pursuit of modernization as Chinese President Xi Jinping announced here on Thursday an upgrade of China-Africa relations and unveiled 10 partnership actions, ‘People's Daily Online’ reports.

In his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Xi proposed that bilateral relations between China and all African countries having diplomatic ties with China be elevated to the level of strategic relations.

Xi underlined modernization as "an inalienable right of all countries" in his speech, saying there will be no global modernization without the modernization of China and Africa.

Xi said that the joint pursuit of modernization by China and Africa will set off a wave of modernization in the Global South and open a new chapter for building a community with a shared future for humanity.

He stressed jointly advancing modernization that is just and equitable, is open and win-win, puts the people first, features diversity and inclusiveness, is eco-friendly, and is underpinned by peace and security.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa emphasized the need for China and Africa to work in a spirit of cooperation and collaboration. "China has a long history of friendship and solidarity with the people of Africa over many centuries. And we thank China for continuing to expand and develop this spirit of cooperation and collaboration with our continent," he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said China's partnerships with the African continent are a main pillar of South-South cooperation. "China's remarkable rapid development, including eradicating poverty, provides a wealth of experience and expertise. Africa can maximize the potential of China's support in areas from trade to finance and technology," said Guterres.

To materialize the modernization vision, Xi proposed 10 partnership actions to be implemented in the next three years, which cover areas of mutual learning among civilizations, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, health, agriculture and livelihoods, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, green development and common security.

For trade prosperity, Xi said China will voluntarily and unilaterally open its market wider and has decided to give all the least developed countries having diplomatic relations with China, including 33 countries in Africa, zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines. This has made China the first major developing country and the first major economy to take such a step, which will help turn China's big market into Africa's big opportunity.

To ensure common security, China is willing to build with Africa a partnership for implementing the Global Security Initiative (GSI) and make it a fine example of the GSI cooperation. The country will also give Africa 1 billion yuan of grants in military assistance, Xi said.

A declaration on jointly building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era and an action plan of the FOCAC for the next three years were adopted Thursday at the summit.

"To get rich, build roads first." The popular Chinese proverb rings true in Africa. Drawing on its own development experience, China has been dedicated to working with Africa to build transport facilities crucial for economic development, writes ‘People's Daily Online’.

Over the past half-century, the unity and cooperation between China, the world's largest developing country, and Africa, the continent with the largest number of developing countries, have continually delivered mutual benefits.

One of the most visible examples is the Belt and Road Initiative, which has seen significant investments in African infrastructure, such as roads, railways, ports, and power plants.

Over the last quarter century, Chinese companies have helped African countries build or upgrade more than 10,000 km of railways, nearly 100,000 km of highways, roughly 1,000 bridges, almost 100 ports and 66,000 km of power transmission and distribution lines, all of which have created arteries of connectivity across the African continent.

Over the past decade, China has set up 24 agricultural technology demonstration centers in Africa and popularized more than 300 advanced agricultural technologies, which have increased local crop yields by an average of 30 to 60 percent, benefiting more than 1 million farmers in African countries.

China's growing engagement with Africa unsettles some nations in the West. They hence use narratives like "neocolonialism" and "debt trap" as geopolitical tools to smear China and weaken the effectiveness of its development partnerships with developing countries.

However, the reality on the ground suggests a different story. African leaders have repeatedly emphasized that China's approach respects their sovereignty and development priorities. This stands in contrast to the paternalistic and conditional aid often provided by the West.

It is with a spirit of mutual respect and win-win cooperation that China and Africa are addressing global challenges such as climate change, peacekeeping, and sustainable development.

China and African countries will strengthen their high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, said attendees of a high-level meeting of the ongoing 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Thursday. The meeting, focusing on high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, was co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang and Kenyan President William Ruto.

Addressing the meeting, Ding, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said Africa is an important partner in the Belt and Road cooperation.

He said that both sides should improve and upgrade economic and trade cooperation, jointly expand pragmatic cooperation in new fields, and strengthen collaboration in areas such as public health, green transition and the digital economy.